


I'm Always On Your Side

by SereneCalamity



Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Toni v Penelope, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Until Toni
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 15:17:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16286996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneCalamity/pseuds/SereneCalamity
Summary: Cheryl hadn't felt this secure in a long time. Maybe ever.





	I'm Always On Your Side

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from On Your Side by The Veronicas, which I love.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the title.

Cheryl Blossom had always had a messy life.

It didn't look like it on the outside, but hell, once someone scratched the surface and saw what was going on underneath the perfect outer shell, it was a disaster.

The abuse from her mother, the neglect from her father—loosing her twin brother who was also her best friend when she was sixteen and then loosing her Nana Rose Blossom when she was seventeen when she was so close to getting away from her parents...

She  _was_  a mess.

The long trail of boys and girls stumbled with her through high school and then into her first year at NYU.

The alcohol and drugs came when she was in her second year, which lead to a couple of arrests and nights in a scungy prison cell that she would never have imagined herself sleeping in when she was a kid.

She had, though, slept in there.

Probably because she was so drunk she didn't even remember her own name.

She was lucky enough to have Elizabeth Cooper and Veronica Lodge, two girls that she had never been close with in high school but had somehow managed to forge a relationship with once they had all escaped from Riverdale. They bailed her out on multiple occasions, and when her parents cut her off, they moved her into the penthouse apartment that Veronica's parents owned.

That was when they had all gotten closer.

And that was when she had met Toni Topaz.

Toni was Betty's boyfriends best friend. Or, maybe, second best friend, after Archie Andrews.

Cheryl had never been intimidated before.

And especially not by a girl who was all smiles and sweet sarcasm and and pink pigtails and definitely wasn't  _trying_  to intimidate anyone. Not to say that Toni was always a complete darling, she could be downright vicious when it came to people offending the ones she loved—Cheryl saw the tiny pink haired girl mouthing off and gearing up to fight a six foot something guy who had bad mouthed Sweet Pea.

Sweet Pea and Fangs Fogarty had managed to drag her away.

Cheryl  _still_  didn't know what their real names were, but she didn't even bother asking anymore.

It wasn't as though they would tell her anyway.

They didn't really like her, she could see it on their faces.

There had also been the time when her mother had come into town, and all she did was belittle and degrade Cheryl, every single second of the weekend.

Betty and Veronica didn't say anything because of the pleading looks that Cheryl kept shooting them, begging to keep them quiet.

Archie and Forsythe Pendleton Jughead Jones III, better known as Jughead, were also tense whenever they were around the older woman, Jughead clicking is teeth in an effort to stay quiet and Archie moving to stand partially in front of Cheryl when things got particularly bad, as though trying to protect her. Cheryl appreciated it, even though she knew she wasn't the boys favourite person.

But Toni had clearly had enough, because as she was getting into her town car and Cheryl was awkwardly kissing her goodbye on the cheek, Toni tilted her head to the side, gave her a charming smile, before singing out in a viper-like tone,

"I have no idea how a horrific hag of a woman like you managed to give life to such a beautiful woman, like Cheryl."

Penelope Blossom had had  _no idea_  what to say.

If Cheryl hadn't been in love before, she was now.

She kissed Toni for the first time that night.

She did _a lot more_  with Toni that night.

And then things felt a whole lot better. With Toni,  _everything_  felt better, especially when they were all wrapped up in their own world.

Cheryl felt like she was a better person.

The reason that she had never gotten along with Betty and Veronica in high school is because Cheryl was a bitch. Veronica could be a bitch and Betty was sassy in a quiet way, but Cheryl was vicious and she didn't care if she burned everyone around her. She was lucky enough that they were willing to forgive her, but even though she had calmed down a little bit, she had never actually become a better  _person_.

At least until Toni.

Toni made her better.

Toni made her  _want_  to be better.

She stopped drinking so much, and she stopped doing drugs. She actually went to her classes and she joined a dance team at the college. She helped clean up around the penthouse and Betty taught her how to bake. She was nicer to Archie and Jughead, and Fangs and Sweet Pea, and she was pretty sure that they actually liked her.

Or, at least they were  _starting_  to.

And for the first time in her life, that was actually important to her, because these  _people_  were important to Veronica and Betty and  _Toni_ , and so she wanted to get along with them.

There were setbacks, like there were with everything in life.

The date of Jason's death.

His birthday.

Family events where her parents demanded that she go back to Riverdale, and she felt herself closing up and her heart hardening in an effort to protect herself. Her friends could see it when she did it as well, but they didn't push or tell her to snap out of it, they just gave her time to soften back up, to relax back into the life that she had built here in the city.

And with Toni.

Who snuggled up with Cheryl when she was feeling down, and kissed the back of her neck, and braided her hair, and massaged her feet, and rubbed her shoulders and made her super sweet hot chocolate with marshmallows on top.

Toni, who was always going to be there for her, always on her side.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think :)


End file.
